Brake head and shoe



T. A. GRIFFIN.

BRAKE HEAD AND SHOE.

No. 376,523. Patented Jan. 1'7, 1888.

UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE.

THOMAS A. GRIFFIN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

BRAKE HEAD AND' SHOE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 376,523, dated January 17, 1888 Application filed October 12, 1887. Serial No. 252,106. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS A. GRIFFIN,Of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Brake Heads and Shoes, of which the following is a full specification.

It is well known that wrought-iron or mild steel is preferable to cast-iron for brake-shoes, and these materials alone or in combination with cast-iron have been much used. The chief hinderance to their exclusive use has been their cost. To diminish this cost by making a brake-shoe from a form of wrought metal which is of very little commercial value except as scrap is a purpose of my invention.

My invention consists in the parts hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings, Figures 1 and 2 are perspective views of two forms of brake-heads, both embodying my invention. Fig. 1 shows a brake head and shoe in one piece formed from a section of steel or iron rail.

The part designated by A was originally the head of the rail, the part marked B the web, and part 0 the flange.

The transformation from a rail-section to abrake head and shoe is effected by separating the flange from the web of the rail-section for a suitable distance from each end, turning the ends of the flange down to fit the brake-beam, as shown in Fig. 2, and bending the head and web of the rail to suit the curve of the can wheel.

The rail-head may be flattened,so as to present a larger surface to the wheel,though this is not essential.

The part c affords a convenient attachment for the brake-hanger. Any other mode of attachment may be adopted, however.

InFig. 1 the brake-head is in one piece, which fact necessitates the removal of the entire head when the shoe A is worn out. I have therefore made the shoe and brake-head in two parts. ([llustratedin Fig. 2.) The ends of the flange O are separated from the web B and fitted to the brake-beam D,as before, and a portion of the web B of the rail-section is removed from each end, and slots E E are made through the head A. The shoe A may be made from another rail-section having its flange removed and having only enough of the web remaining to form the lugs-F F, which serve to keep the shoe A in place.

I do not wish to be restricted to any precise mode of fastening together the shoe and head, as many ways of doing this are known and used, and are readily adapted to the shape shown in Figs. 1 and 2 The shoe A may also be made of cast-iron or any, material ordinarily used for that purpose.

l. A brake -head constructed from a railsection by partially separating the flange from the web and shaping said flange to fit the brake-beam and shaping the head to receive the shoe.

2. A brake head and shoe constructed from a rail-section by partially separating the flange from the web, shaping said. flange to fit the brakebeam, and shaping the rail-head to conform to the periphery of the car-wheel.

THOMAS A. GRIFFIN.

Witnesses:

P. H. T. lVIASON, J. I. VEEDER. 

